1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to hanging mechanisms and in particular to a hanging apparatus for fixing a medical device to a support structure.
2. Description of Related Art
Patients within hospital and extended health care settings frequently must utilize medical instrumentation and other medical devices associated with the monitoring and/or treatment of a variety of conditions. Such instruments and devices that often must be positioned in close proximity to the patient, range from simple blood pressure and temperature monitoring devices to more complex gas and fluid pumps or reduced pressure treatment system devices. While some of these instruments are constructed and positioned on their own moveable carts or wheeled carriages, many more are sized and structured so as to require placement on a tabletop or on some other support fixture associated with the patient's location.
A common structure utilized to retain such medical instruments and devices is an IV pole, so named because of its primary purpose of hanging an intravenous (IV) solution bag or container for administration of fluids to the patient. IV poles are typically fitted with wheeled stands that allow the pole to be moved, especially with a patient that is ambulatory. This wheeled stand structure also permits the IV pole and the associated objects it supports to be moved in and out of the patient's locale as needed.
The use of IV poles is sufficiently prevalent that many medical instruments and devices have been structured with brackets and/or clamps that are sized and shaped to be fixed to the vertically oriented pole structure. These brackets and/or clamps sometimes take the form of clips or screw-tightened enclosures. The vertical orientation of these clamps, however, makes it difficult to use the same attachment structure on any object other than the vertically structured IV pole.
Other structures typically found in close proximity to patients requiring the use of medical instruments and devices are hospital type bed frames and patient wheelchairs. Each of these latter two structures will generally present horizontal bars, rails, or the like to which medical instruments and devices might be attached if they are so configured to receive and retain the horizontal bar structures. In general, however, the clamp or attachment structures associated with medical devices and instruments do not lend themselves to easy modification between a structure that is appropriate for attachment to a vertical pole and a structure appropriate for attachment to a horizontal bar.
It would be desirable to have a clamping or attachment device capable of easy structural modification such that the same device could serve to attach a medical instrument or medical device to a vertically oriented stand, such as an IV pole, or to a horizontally oriented stand, such as a hospital bed railing or a bar associated with a wheelchair. It would be desirable if the attachment mechanism could be easily switched between an orientation appropriate for horizontal attachment and an orientation appropriate for vertical attachment. It would be desirable if this versatility in attachment orientation was accompanied by a secure closure in either orientation, such that the medical instrument or medical device was unlikely to become dislodged from the support structure.
It would further be beneficial if, in the use of the clamp or attachment mechanism, a definitive indication of the secure state of the clamp could be provided.